I love Beachcombers

Ahhh, summer… what with Covid curve balls and La Nina’s Finnish sauna-style humidity, the holidays felt like a long-awaited reprieve.

Our family was lucky to get away to a surfside village called Depot Beach. There’s not a road trip we take down there that we don’t adapt the Echo Beach lyrics and sing “Depot Beach, far away in time”. While it’s only a 3.5 hour drive south, it does feel far away in time. There’s probably only about a dozen houses, nestled above the National Parks campground. One is a rather fancy Peter Stutchbury-designed masterpiece, but my favourite is a retro mid-century ‘beachcomber’ shack. Even though it’s probably wrapped in asbestos and with zero insulation, it’s my dream holiday home.

The ‘beachcomber’ is a type of house that came about in the 1960s. They have a classic look. Sitting atop stilts with a garage or carport underneath and an entry that leads to a set of stairs that takes you up to the first level. They usually only consist of these two levels, with the upper level containing all the living quarters. Small, compact and unique – they are in stark contrast to the size of houses we build today. And this was their original intent – affordable housing. Surprisingly, they came from one of Australia’s largest developers, Lendlease (think Barangaroo). The Lendlease of the 1960s was a very different beast. Dick Dusseldorp was the managing director back then. He’s quoted as saying in 1973: “Companies must start justifying their worth to society, with greater emphasis placed on environmental and social impact rather than straight economics.”

This ethos led Dick to hire a young Croatian architect, Nino Sydney (how good were names back then!). Nino’s first assignment was to design project homes and one of these was the ‘beachcomber’. It became very popular for young budget-conscious families building on Sydney’s fringes. It had to be easy to build, as there was a massive skills shortage back then (sound familiar?). The display homes were designed, approved, built and landscaped in five months. That’s almost unheard of these days – the approval process itself can take five months!

Due to its being raised up on stilts, it also suited a lot of sloping bush blocks. One of the better preserved ones is in Faulconbridge, on the lower slopes of the Blue Mountains, which sometimes offers tours (www.australianmodern.com.au). There’s also a website for all things beachcomber (www.beachcomberhouse.com.au). You can read about their history, download original floor plans as well as upload pictures of any you’ve spotted.

Sadly, Nino passed away this last summer at the age of 89. In a write-up in the Sydney Morning Herald, his son said: “If you asked him (Nino) for his proudest achievement, it was that he could develop modern architecture for Australians and still keep it affordable.”

We could do with some of that same sentiment making its way into today’s housing industry.